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World Cup-winning Wallabies legend Michael Lynagh says bold decisions are required from Rugby Australia to restore success, stop rivals codes mocking rugby and save the 15-man game from \u201cdisappearing down a big sinkhole\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lynagh laid out his concerns for the health of rugby in Australia \u2013 and advocated for a reduction in Super Rugby teams \u2013 as the Wallabies\u2019 first World Cup exit from the pool stages was confirmed by a Fiji losing bonus point on Monday.<\/p>\n
Lynagh is rugby royalty in Australia after captaining the Wallabies and playing 72 Tests in a 12-year career \u2013 including the 1984 Grand Slam tour and the 1991 Rugby World Cup win.<\/p>\n
Speaking to former England halfback Matt Dawson on a BBC rugby podcast, the London-based Lynagh said he\u2019d been saddened by the Wallabies\u2019 poor campaign in the 2023 Rugby World Cup but hoped it would be an overdue wake-up call for Australian rugby.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia really haven\u2019t fired a shot at this World Cup, and it\u2019s really disappointing. I feel for the players. They\u2019re not bad players and they\u2019ve worked really hard but when they get out on the field it just doesn\u2019t seem to click for them,\u201d Lynagh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the way this has gone there\u2019s going to be a few of them that might struggle to get over this experience. I hope not.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Michael Lynagh lines up a kick.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax<\/cite><\/p>\n Lynagh said the \u201cdecline of rugby\u201d had been underway for 10-15 years in Australia and the game requires a sharp U-turn to lifts its downward trajectory at home, where talented young footballers are choosing other codes, with NRL and AFL able to outspend the 15-man game with far bigger broadcast deals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all hope that a successful Australian rugby team can carry us through and plaster over these problems, but I\u2019m afraid this time it hasn\u2019t. It\u2019s time for a full stop and see what we can do going forward,\u201d Lynagh said. \u201cThe youngsters coming through are choosing different sports which are better funded than rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n Rugby Australia is using the Wallabies\u2019 World Cup woes as a catalyst to push hard for reform in the game\u2019s high-performance structures, aiming for a centralised model.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want them to be competitive, we want to have the local support behind us, the whole country behind us, as opposed to AFL and rugby league supporters laughing at us and putting us down – which is what is happening at the moment,\u201d Lynagh said.<\/p>\n Tom Hooper after the Wallabies\u2019 loss to Wales.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Some argue Australia needs to consider reducing its number of professional teams from five, and Lynagh said that the success of the Wallabies in his career was partly due to the team being drawn from just two states – NSW and Queensland. Lynagh has two son playing professionally – Tom plays for Queensland and Louis plays for Harlequins in England.<\/p>\n \u201cLike Leinster, they play together a lot, they know each other really well, they gel together and we seem to have lost that a little bit now with having five teams in Super Rugby and competing against New Zealand and South Africa when they were in the competition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough and we\u2019re not winning a lot against those teams. Having five teams has really disappeared the playing togetherness, we just don\u2019t have the playing population to fill these teams.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe there\u2019s going to be some tough decisions having to come up as to how we structure the whole situation in Australia and I\u2019m afraid the results at this World Cup have shown the current system hasn\u2019t been working for a while and it\u2019s going to take some time for any changes to come to fruition, but something has to happen, we can\u2019t continue this downward spiral.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Australia we have a federated system and states are their own little fiefdoms and they don\u2019t like each other and don\u2019t trust Rugby Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s got to be a change in how we\u2019re doing those things. They are big, bold decisions that will not be popular but if we don\u2019t there will be real problem in going the same way we\u2019re going … there\u2019s a real possibility of Australian rugby disappearing down a big sinkhole.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n